Authorize.net down?

[FalseDawn]

Just had a very suspicious "bot-like" filling in of fields and CC validation on one of my sites and the main authorize.net site appears broken.

Ho hum.

[Robski]

Yes, I've noticed that I can't login to authorize net also.

[iJeep]

Yep, it's down for me too....

[sun818]

Same here. Even Paypal Virtual Terminal (my backup in case AuthorizeNet goes down) is also not working. I can get to the secure.authorize.net login page, but when I submit my login and password, I get the following error:

Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a01a8'

Object required: 'documentElement'

/merch/evalvars.asp, line 203

When are they going to learn you can't run a financial web site on Microsoft servers.

[FalseDawn]

It looks like a very large DOS attack.

[jollymcfats]

Auth.net had a service update last night (between midnight and 3am). Maybe it didn't go so smoothly.

[FalseDawn]

[eweek.com...]

Seems nasty - apparently they have been under frequent DDOS attacks for a while.

search for "authorize.net attack" in G

[sun818]

The article you stated is from September 2004 though.

[FalseDawn]

Yes, I realized that, but do a search in G - there are recent ones stating that the attacks are still going on.

[FalseDawn]

It just seems too coincidental that I get suspicious activity on my CC form and their site is down, that's all.
Has anybody else who uses A.Net noticed anything suspicious?

[ecommerceprofit]

We use the same terminals restaurants use and key in ourselves. This never goes down. Also allows us to stay on top of fraud.

Of course this is slower so soon we will be automating so we just run our credit cards through in batches - but why do you all use authorize net when you can just do the programming yourselves? Am I missing something?

[FalseDawn]

Real time validation for one (at least when it works!)
Plus you do not need to store credit card details anywhere so it is a whole lot more secure.

[sun818]

> key in ourselves

Not my idea of fun. ;)

[BradleyT]

We send CC and customer information to Authorize who then sends it to Wells Fargo (in our case) and returns a "yes" or "no" response in less than a second.

How exactly do you "program" it yourself? You still have to program an API to talk to Authorize.net and to read their response.

[Robski]

Imagine having to key in 100 transactions per day. Not very productive is it? Also as Falsedown has stated there is no need to hold any of the customer's sensitive data.

[jollymcfats]

They seem to be back on-line.

[iJeep]

We're up and running again.

Just an annoyance.

[jkemd]

Just started working for me too.

[FalseDawn]

Hurrah!

[jwurunner]

Even more shocking about the situation is that Authorize.Net actually posted on their site that they had a problem.

Unplanned System Downtime
At approximately 11:45 AM Pacific time, the payment gateway experienced a brief unplanned downtime. Your ability to process transactions and/or access the Merchant Interface may have been temporarily disrupted.

"The reliability of the payment gateway is one of our highest priorities. Our engineering team worked quickly to resolve technical issues and restore uninterrupted functionality as soon as possible. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced as a result of this unanticipated downtime.

Transaction processing and Merchant Interface access are now fully restored"

Usually we just wonder what happened and if it was them or our internet connection hicupping..

[ecommerceprofit]

You just need to program to your credit card processor - no need to pay authorizenet fees - you can get yes/no responses quickly with your own processor too - I see no need for authorizenet - in regards to security - just encrypt the data and for further protection delete it daily or weekly. What do you guys think of icverify or pc charge?